Detroit sees a better way to move traffic

The rest of the country is waking up to the damage done by ever-wider freeways plowing through urban cores if not the Arkansas Department of Highways (D'OH). Here the freeway builders envision Interstate 30 as wide as 15 lanes in downtown Little Rock if the $600 million-plus 30 Crossing boondoggle is built and then billions more freeway building to cope with the demand and congestion it induces, not to mention the trashing of the city traffic grid.

After years of study and debate, the Michigan Department of Transportation is moving ahead with plans to rip out Detroit's I-375 expressway and restore a surface street there.

It won't happen overnight. The soonest MDOT might move ahead is about 2022, provided details are settled and funding arranged.

But the commitment to remove I-375 and restore a surface street puts Detroit firmly in the ranks of cities trying to undo the damage done a half-century ago by ramming high-speed freeways through urban neighborhoods.

In its place, MDOT would create a surface street with landscaped medians, bicycle lanes and other amenities.